Welcome to our annual holiday shopping trends episode. This year, this holly jolly discussion is led by Chelsea Freitas,  VP of our Strategy team, and she is joined by two other members of our strategy team, Adam Simon and Katy Geisreiter. In this episode, the trio shared some must-know stats about this year’s holiday shopping trends and consumer behaviors, highlighted their favorite tech-enabled retail holiday campaigns, and debated the effects of funflation and other marco-economic forces on holiday shopping behaviors this year. Listen now!  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Floor 9. This week, we are tackling the hottest innovation territory of the year, generative AI, and its impact on the ad industry with the help of two brilliant UM thought leaders: James Fox, Global Chief Strategy Officer, and Andrew Littlewood, Global Chief Product Officer. Together with the Lab’s managing director Adam Simon, the trio discussed the state of generative AI, especially in terms of where it is in the Gartner hype cycle, the industry leaders in consumer-facing AI, what marketers can do with the new AI tools, and what’s next for generative AI. In addition, the following intriguing questions were also raised and explored:Is generative AI already over the peak of its hype cycle?How quickly will we culturally accept to use private data to train generative AI?Will generative AI cause the ad industry to implode? How far away are we from achieving human-level general artificial intelligence? If you’re curious about generative AI and want to learn about how it impacts the world of advertising and marketing, this episode is a must-listen!Floor 9 is a podcast created by the IPG Media Lab to bring you our latest musings and hot takes at the intersection of consumer technology and digital media.If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Floor 9. In this episode, we had the honor of having Kara Manatt, EVP of Intelligence Solutions at MAGNA, and Edwin Wong, SVP, Insights & Innovation at Vox Media, to chat about their recent blockbuster research on the persuasive power of podcasters and podcasting’s growing influence. When asked which media figures’ influence matters most, their study found that 75% of listeners say podcast hosts compared to 15% who say social media influencers.Kara and Edwin shared which podcasts they love most, then dived into the most revelatory findings from the joint study, “Podcasts: A New Era of Influence” (starting at 11:07). Some highlights of their discussion include:Why podcasters are now more influential than other types of influencersWhy IPG choose to partner with Vox to learn more about podcastsHow podcasters can help listeners with mental health and self-actualization How brands can harness the persuasive power of podcasters and drive results You can learn more about this joint research here: https://www.voxmedia.com/2023/5/10/23718269/podcasts-a-new-era-of-influence If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening!  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode: What the Lab thinks about Vision Pro, Apple’s first spatial computing device, and its potential impact on media consumption habits. Plus, various other interesting tidbits from Apple’s WWDC event this week, including the unified presence of widgets across OS’s, and Apple’s deliberation omission of generative AI. Floor 9 is a podcast created by the IPG Media Lab to bring you our latest musings and hot takes at the intersection of consumer technology and digital media. In this episode, you’ll hear from Adam Simon, our managing director, and Ryan Miller, director of partnerships. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Floor 9! As usual, we are kicking off the year with a CES recap episode that features the entire IPG Media Lab team, plus Chad Stoller, Global Chief Innovation Officer of UM Worldwide. Listen now to hear about our team’s thoughts on the biggest trends in digital health, entertainment, mobility, smart home, and vice economy coming out of this year’s CES show floors! If you'd like to learn more about our CES learnings, please check out the Lab's CES content, including an in-depth written recap, here: https://ipglab.com/ces/Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. Click here to listen and subscribe! If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Come one, come all! ‘Tis the season for our annual holiday episode of Floor 9. This year, we’re closing out the year with a not-so-Secret Santa gift exchange featuring co-hosts Ryan and Adam, along with the entire Strategy team here at the Lab — Chelsea, Katy, and Richard. All the gifts given in this episode have ties to one or more of the Innovation Territories that we track throughout the years at the Lab, while also reflecting what we know of each other. So listen now to find out what we gifted each other, and why we think they are representative of the key innovation trends. Maybe our selection of innovation-minded gifts will inspire gifts for your loved ones, or highlight innovation territories to pay attention to!As always, you can find Adam on Twitter @adamjsimon, and Ryan on LinkedIn. Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. Click here to listen and subscribe! If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Floor 9! 'Tis the season again to talk about holiday shopping trends. Listen now to hear co-hosts Adam and Ryan walk you through the following trends in holiday shopping and recent news from the streaming services:Highlights from recent holiday shopping reports from Insider Intelligence and the Deloitte holiday survey;The looming recession’s impact on holiday shopping (or the lack thereof);Amex’s Small Business Saturday event and how to support SMBs during the holidays;News on emerging shopping trends: Amazon partnering with Snapchat for Shoppable AR lenses & Peloton’s new ecommerce widget;Latest streaming news on Netflix and Apple adding live sports content, the resulting increase in ad opportunities, and Disney’s broadening ecosystem playWe close out the episode with a quick discussion on the ongoing FTX debacle and a potentially long crypto winter. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast.As always, you can find Adam on Twitter @adamjsimon, and Ryan on LinkedIn. Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Floor 9, we welcome a panel of experts on direct mail, including Dave Fink, Founder and CEO of Postie, Paul Tracey, VP of Advisory Services at Matterkind, and Lauren Banks, Brand Marketing Specialist at USPS. Moderated by Ryan Miller, Senior Manager of Partnerships at the Lab, our group of industry insiders dive into the unique capabilities of direct mail as a media channel, dispel some common misconceptions about direct mail among marketers such as addressability and sustainability, and explain how modern direct mail companies (like Postie) have digitally enhanced a century-old marketing channel. If you wish to learn more about how direct mail has become a privacy-first, brand-safe media channel, along with some suggestions on best practices, you won’t want to miss out on this great discussion on Floor 9!Recommended reading:2022 Holiday Marketing Playbook by PostieUSPS Educational Portal: https://uspsmailjourney.comLogistics and marketing insights from USPS: https://www.uspsdelivers.com/As always, you can follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. Click here to listen and subscribe! If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Lab team is back on the mic to discuss the latest announcements from Apple. Host and Senior Manager of Partnerships, Ryan is joined by Adam and Katy from our Strategy team to chat about everything Apple unveiled during Wednesday’s “Far Out” event, from the funky Dynamic Island design for the new iPhone 14 Pro to the rugged Apple Watch Ultra with new emergency SOS features, as well as all the brand implications these new products and features will entail. Listen now! As always, you can find Adam on Twitter @adamjsimon, and Ryan on LinkedIn. Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. Click here to listen and subscribe! If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Floor 9, we’re delighted to chat with Jennifer Solomon-Baum, North America Marketing at Microsoft Advertising and Innovation Lab Lead, to learn about how the maker of Windows has emerged as the latest heavy-hitting player to join the digital advertising arena. In this episode, we talked about Microsoft’s growing advertising capabilities (many of which were announced at the Microsoft Build 2022 event), the unique ecosystem of services that Microsoft has at its disposal to reach the “Workday Consumer”, and the myriad of ways that brands can take advantage of their ad offers. You can follow Jennifer on LinkedIn, or watch her in The Download, a video series that she produces (highly recommend the special episode from Cannes!) In addition, you can also read more about the Workday Consumer, a new commissioned research conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft Advertising, and read more about the future of work on WorkLab.  As always, you can find Adam on Twitter @adamjsimon, and Ryan on LinkedIn. Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. Click here to listen and subscribe! If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Floor 9! This week, we welcome back Joshua Lowcock, UM’s Global Chief Media Officer, for an in-depth discussion about all things metaverse with our SVP, head of strategy, Adam Simon. From where the metaverse currently sits in the hype cycle, to the competitive landscape of the platforms with “metaverse aspirations," to understanding the metaverse as a operating system, Joshua and Adam talk through the various key aspects of this hot-button concept and, more importantly, what it means for brand marketers eager to enter the metaverse.As always, you can find Adam on Twitter @adamjsimon, and Joshua on LinkedIn. Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. Click here to listen and subscribe! If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Floor 9! This week, co-hosts Adam and Ryan bring you the must-know highlights from the 2022 WWDC keynote that Apple gave on Monday. From new lock screen UI design to new Apple Wallet features, they chat about how Apple continued to show commitment to creating seamless user experiences, with a newfound emphasis on customization and shared experiences. Innovation-minded brands know that Apple’s WWDC announcements often offer a sneak peek into the future, and we hope this episode will help you better understand the new features coming soon to millions of consumers.As always, you can find Adam on Twitter @adamjsimon, and Ryan on LinkedIn. Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. Click here to listen and subscribe! If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Floor 9, we’re delighted to welcome audio ads expert Alyssa Meyers, who works as a reporter for Morning Brew's Marketing Brew newsletter. Adam Simon, US Head of Innovation at UM, talked with Alyssa about the state of podcast advertising, a booming ad market that is forecast to exceed $2 billion in revenue in 2022. From major growth drivers like Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) and programmatics to newer formats beyond host-read ads, Alyssa shared with us her insights on how and why brands should consider leveraging podcasts to reach an increasingly mainstream and diverse audience.You can find Alyssa on LinkedIn and follow her work on Morning Brew for the latest insights on audio ads.Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to another recap episode of Floor 9! This week, Adam and Ryan will walk you through all the major announcements from the latest Google I/O developer event, where the search giant announced several brand-friendly features on visual search, voice assistant, digital wallet, data privacy, and more. In addition to these software updates, Adam and Ryan also talk about Google’s hardware news from the event, including the all-new Pixel Watch and a pair of AR glasses that Google subtly showcased in a demo video (which may or may not be vaporware). Listen now to hear our take on Google’s announcements and their implications for brand marketers. You can read an in-depth recap of this event on our Medium site here.As always, you can find Adam on Twitter @adamjsimon, and Ryan on LinkedIn. Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode, we had the pleasure of chatting with Randall Rothenberg, Executive Chair at IAB, and ​​Chris Bruderle, Vice President of Research & Analytics at IAB, about the insights on social commerce from their brilliant annual Brand Disruption report. Together with your host Ryan Miller, we discussed the rise of direct brands and storeless commerce, how social media has become the new TV, the role of micro- and nano-influencers in social commerce, and the best practices for brands to tap into social commerce. If you’re a brand looking to understand how shopper behavior is shifting in the age of social commerce, this episode is a can’t-miss!You can find Randall on Twitter @r2rothenberg and on LinkedIn, and Chris on LinkedIn. You can find the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. Click here to listen and subscribe! If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Floor 9 is back with a special post-event recap episode! Co-hosts Adam Simon and Ryan Miller are joined by Chelsea Freitas, our VP of Strategy & Innovation, to discuss the 2022 Snap Partner Summit. Listen now to hear our thoughts on the new creator tools and brand-friendly features that the Snapchat parent company announced during its annual media event, in addition to some brand suggestions on how to utilize AR to deliver brand value, today and tomorrow.If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Floor 9. This week, we chatted with Arielle Garcia, Chief Privacy Officer at UM Worldwide and our resident expert on online safety, about how companies are taking actions against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. Many international companies, including big tech companies, have paused marketing operations in Russia, or pulled out of the market entirely. Adam Simon, UM’s U.S. head of Innovation, talked with Arielle about how brands are thinking about brand safety in response to a devastating world event like this, the brand responsibility of continuing to support quality news and combat misinformation, and why taking a more nuanced approach is crucial in times like this.You can click here to check out the Human Rights Watch site that Arielle mentioned towards the end of the episode.Click here to listen and subscribe! If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to another new episode of Floor 9. This week, co-host Ryan Miller and Adam Simon are back on the mic to share their hot takes on the latest Apple event that took place on Tuesday, including our thoughts on Apple’s content strategy and its MLB content deal, its 5G approach, and its pursuit of faster, better CPU chips with Apple Silicon. In addition, they also talked about some latest news of brands in metaverse and web3, including:American Eagle Debuts on Roblox via Role-playing Game Livetopia [Ad Age]Gucci Plans Virtual World for Gen Z  in The Sandbox [Vogue Business]Rolling Stone Inked Partnership with Meta for A Creator Initiative at Festivals [Variety]Coachella To Sell lifetime Festival Passes as NFTs [The Verge]As a bonus,, Adam also shares his thoughts on the “flight subscription” plans that Alaska Airlines recently announced.We hope you enjoy this episode. If you like what you hear, please spare a minute and give us a five-star review on Apple Podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 133 — Outlook 2022 Trends: Embracing Entropy, Part 2Welcome back to Floor 9! In this episode, the Lab’s strategy team will continue to walk you through the remaining two trends in our Outlook 2022 report: The Multiplayer Internet, and The Great Escape. Co-hosts Ryan and Adam will be joined by Richard Yao to chat about things like:what our increased sense of online “presence” can unlock new types of digital experiencesWhat “time-shifted togetherness” means and why brands can leverage that to enrich their offeringsthe roots behind our increasing need for a mental escape and how brands can help without being tone-deafthe role that various vice economies play in enabling our collective need for escapism and the brand opportunities withinIf you missed the first part of this conversation on our Outlook trends, please check out the last episode here.We hope you enjoy this episode. If you like what you hear, please spare a minute and give us a five-star review on Apple Podcast!Click here to listen and subscribe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Floor 9! To kick off the year, the Lab’s strategy team will be walking you through each one of the key trends in our Outlook 2022 report with a two-part special. In this first half, you will hear Ryan talk with strategy team members Adam, Katy, and Chelsea on the first half of our Outlook report, including insights on trends like: what "hyperobjects" are and why they matter to everyonewhy the only common theme of the 2020’s will be entropy and what that means for brandshow the creator economy and web3 technologies are tipping power balance to the people and connected communities how the relationship between consumer and brand is extending well beyond the point of purchase and unlocking new lifecyclesWe hope you enjoy this episode. If you like what you hear, please spare a minute and give us a five-star review on Apple Podcast!Click here to listen and subscribe! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.